Publications /
Book / Report

Back
Morocco’s Quest for Stronger and Inclusive Growth
Authors
Edited by Roberto Cardarelli
Taline Koranchelian
October 9, 2023

This book was originally published on elibrary.imf.org

 

Throughout the past two decades, Morocco has faced several external and domestic shocks, including large swings in international oil prices, regional geopolitical tensions, severe droughts, and most recently the impact of the pandemic and the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite rough waters, the government stayed the course and remained focused not only on immediate stability, but also on the long-term needs of the Moroccan economy. This involved the adoption of a series of difficult measures, like the elimination of energy subsidies, and a strategy aimed at improving the country’s infrastructure, diversifying the production and export bases by attracting foreign investment, and modernizing the governance structure of the public administration. The road to higher and more inclusive growth, however, remains steep. Despite gains in poverty reduction, literacy and lifespans, Morocco economy continues to face a high share of inactive youth, large gaps in economic opportunities for women, a fragmented social protection system, and remaining barriers to private sector development. An ambitious reform agenda is needed to better meet the aspirations of Moroccans, by making economic growth stronger, more resilient and more inclusive, particularly to provide greater opportunities for young, women, and entrepreneurs. Morocco appears well positioned to address these challenges, and indeed, the country has recently sought to define and pursue a new “model of development”, through national debates and a more inclusive approach to reform. Significant reforms have been announced recently that revamp both the social protection system and the SOEs business model. This book draws lessons from the reforms Morocco has implemented in the past few decades and charts a course for Morocco by addressing key areas for reform.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    October 3, 2025
    En dépit des progrès sociaux, le Maroc reste confronté à une série de défis. Le chômage persiste à un niveau inacceptable, l’adéquation entre la formation et l’emploi est insatisfaisante, l’accès aux soins est contrarié par maintes contraintes, les disparités territoriales demeurent flagrantes. Pourtant, que de réformes, que de programmes sociaux sont financés depuis des décennies pour couvrir les déficits accumulés par le passé. Beaucoup de ces secteurs névralgiques pour le bi ...
  • September 26, 2025
    Morocco’s strong macroeconomic performance over the past two decades—anchored in infrastructure modernization, industrial diversification, and renewable energy leadership—has positioned it as a success story in the Global South. Yet these achievements mask persistent regional disparities that undermine inclusive development. Coastal regions such as Casablanca-Settat and Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceima dominate economic activity, while hinterland and southern provinces face structural dis ...
  • September 23, 2025
    في هذا العدد من برنامجنا، نسلّط الضوء على موقع المغرب الاستراتيجي الذي يجعله حلقة وصل بين الأطلسي والمتوسط، ودوره المتصاعد في التجارة الدولية والاقتصاد البحري. نناقش التحديات والفرص التي تطرحها هذه الدينامية، من تطوير البنية التحتية وتأهيل الكفاءات، إلى استكشاف آفاق الاقتصاد الأزرق وضما...
  • Authors
    September 19, 2025
    Le constat est unanime et est constamment souligné : le modèle de développement en vigueur au Maroc a atteint ses limites. La Vision Royale, refusant « un Maroc à deux vitesses », vient formaliser au plus haut niveau cette préoccupation systémique, documentée par une décennie de rapports officiels. La  Vision de Sa Majesté le Roi Mohammed VI est un hymne à une dynamique de croissance dont les retombées doivent être plus équitablement réparties et à un développement te ...
  • Authors
    September 16, 2025
    Les questions des inégalités sociales et des inégalités territoriales sont profondément liées.  Les politiques publiques ne peuvent réduire l’une sans s’attaquer à l’autre.  Le phénomène des inégalités peut s’accentuer avec la fragilité de la situation socio-économique de certains territoires d’autant que le développement territorial n’est pas spontanément équitable. La réduction de ces inégalités, un des enjeux majeurs des politiques publiques, oblige à con ...
  • Authors
    Soukaina Raoui
    September 12, 2025
    This Paper was originally published on springer.com This paper provides an in-depth analysis of socio-economic convergence across communes in Morocco, focusing on monetary poverty and educational inequalities. This research investigates the impact of the well-known territorial and inclusive development policies of the National Initiative for Human Development on the catch-up process. We explore the data from the last two general population and housing censuses (2004 and 20 ...
  • September 11, 2025
    Ce travail apporte un éclairage critique sur l'alignement des dispositifs publics d'orientation des étudiants marocains à l'étranger avec les ambitions de développement du pays. Il interroge la capacité de ces mécanismes à transformer la mobilité étudiante d'une potentielle "fuite des cerveaux" en un véritable "gain de cerveaux". S'appuyant sur une étude de cas qualitative, nous avons mené une analyse de contenu systématique (cartographie) de 204 programmes promus par le ministère d ...
  • August 28, 2025
    This Paper was originally published on tandfonline.com The gender gap in education remains a concern for Moroccan policymakers and researchers, yet it is rarely measured quantitatively. This study examines differences in reading and mathematics performance between girls and boys, both at the national level and by place of residence, using PIRLS (2016, 2021) and TIMSS (2015, 2019) data covering 21,129 students. The Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method is applied to distingui ...
  • Authors
    November 1, 2024
    Using panel data from a large group of developing economies and a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator, we examine the effects of trade and other factors on female labor-force participation and wage employment. We focus particularly on comparing the effects of trade openness in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The empirical results indicate that trade openness affects female labor-force p ...